UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 2, Page 4
September 8, 1994
Forum on kids and crime is scheduled in Arsht Hall

     A community forum on "Kids Who Commit Crimes: What Should Be Done
About Juvenile Violence" will be held from 7-9 p.m., Friday, Sept. 16,
in Arsht Hall in Wilmington.
     Interested members of the public are invited to attend and share
their thoughts on this timely topic in a nonpartisan "town meeting"
atmosphere.
     The community forum is not designed as a gripe session but rather
strives to examine choices about what can be done to solve the problem
of juvenile violence. Getting tougher with young criminals, attacking
juvenile crime at its roots and issues of cultural confusion and media
pollution will be discussed.
     The free community forum is being held in conjunction with the
National Issues Forum institute, scheduled for the first time this
year ob Sept. 16-17 on the Wilmington campus.
     The National Issues Forum (NIF) is a non-partisan program of
public issue discussions sponsored by a nationwide network of
educational and community organizations. NIF does not advocate any
specific solution or point of view on public issues but provides a
means for the public to take a more active role in policy making.
     The Sept. 16 community forum will be moderated by national
faculty from the National Issues Forum: Jan Hartough, county extension
director, Michigan State University Extension; and Charles Lacy, dean
of university extension, University of California at Davis.
     "Each year the National Issues Forum selects three topics of
citizen concern. We chose their juvenile violence topic as the one
most timely in our location," Mica Corradin, program manager in the
University's Division of Continuing Education, said.
     Input from the community forum is gathered and reported back to
NIF through surveys and questionnaires. Data compiled nationally are
made available to government leaders, research groups and others. The
findings are more than just results from a poll: "They reflect what
people think and value," Corradin said.
     The community forum is structured so that controversial issues
can be discussed in a non-confrontational manner, she said.
Facilitators do not encourage debate, but rather hope to find common
ground for discussion of how issues affect the public and what
measures might be most appropriate in working toward solutions.
     For more information, call the University of Delaware's Division
of Continuing Education at 831-8839.